ITTC Project

Quantifying the Temporal Characteristics of Congestion Events in the Internet

Project Award Date: 09-01-2002

Description

ITTC researchers will conduct research on a Quality of Service (QoS) metric for the Internet that can be understood easily and used in the design of future packet networks. While QoS mechanisms have not been widely developed in the past because of their complexity and their misunderstood role in user performance, they could play a crucial role in the future design of packet networks. Quality of Service predictors could help designers manage congestion.

This research will define a new QoS metric, the rate of congestion events per unit of time. Further research would develop and identify analytic methodologies to study the metric. Specifically, research will focus on 1) predicting the frequency of congestion events for long-range-dependent (LDR) traffic, i.e., fractional Brownian motion, in a network context; 2) developing simple approximations for predicting the frequency of congestion events; 3) validating the resulting prediction methodologies for networks using real high-resolution traffic measurements; 4) developing efficient techniques to measure the rate of congestion events; and 5) relating the congestion event metric proposed here to new measurement- based temporal QoS metrics.

Currently, it is difficult to justify the investment in complex QoS technologies while their value to the end customer is unknown. It then becomes imperative to research the value of QoS, and its proposed benefits to end users.

The new QoS will summarize the network component of performance in one easily understandable number. Equally important, the proposed metric is structured in a way that it can be used for network engineering.

Investigators

Project Sponsors

Primary Sponsor(s): NSF

Partner with ITTC

The
Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at the
University of Kansas has developed several assistance policies
that enhance interactions between the Center and local,
Kansas, or national companies.

ITTC
assistance includes initial free consulting (normally one to
five hours). If additional support is needed, ITTC will offer
one of the following approaches:

Sponsored
Research Agreement

Individuals
and organizations can enter into agreements with KUCR/ITTC and
provide funds for sponsored research to be performed at ITTC
with the assistance of faculty, staff and students.

Licensing
and Royalty/Equity Agreement

An
ITTC goal is the development of investment-grade technologies
for transfer to, and marketing by, local, Kansas, and national
businesses. To enhance this process, the Center has developed
flexible policies that allow for licensing, royalty, and
equity arrangements to meet both the needs of ITTC and the
company.

Commercialization
Development

Companies
with a technology need that can be satisfied with ITTC's
resources can look to us for assistance. We can develop a
relationship with interested partners that will provide for
the development of a technology suited for commercialization.

ITTC
Resource Access

ITTC
resources, including computers and software systems, may be
made available to Kansas companies in accordance with the
Center's mission and applicable Regents and University
policies.